URN was established from the University's Radio Broadcasting Club, who, in the late 1970s had an hour's slot on BBC Radio Nottingham. The station set up its first studio in the Cherry Tree buildings in 1978 and "University Radio Nottingham" started broadcasting to Hugh Stewart Hall and Cripps Hall of residence on 963 kHz in November 1979. Additional induction loops were set up over the next few years in other halls on campus. A fifth induction loop was installed on Sutton Bonington Campus in 1990, financed by their Guild. In 1997, URN became one of the first radio stations to broadcast on the internet using the MP3 format. The station started broadcasting in the Ogg Vorbis format in 2002. The station was one of the first to broadcast using an LPAM long-term restricted service licence to the whole of University Park on 1350AM in 2001. In 2004, URN moved into new purpose build studios located in the University's Portland Building. This was due to the demolition of the Cherry Tree buildings in 2003. During the summer of 2012 the whole station was refitted to use a Studer digital system for audio routing and mixing. In the Summer of 2018 the station was relocated in the Students' Union Building to the new MediaZone. A brand new AoIP Studio was installed in Spring 2020.
Programming
URN broadcasts twenty-four hoursa day during Nottingham term time, with shows from 09:00 a.m to 3:00 a.m. The station is split into three sections: Daytime, After Dark, and Speech shows. URN's programming includes news-show The Pulse, feature-based speech programming, daytime personality-based programming and evening specialist music shows. URN has a strong focus on Nottingham University students in all areas of its programming.
Stunts
URN once held the world record for the longest continuous broadcast by a single presenter at 42 hours. More recently, Steve Doran accomplished a 40-hour continuous broadcast in November 2005 for Children in Need. In 2016, four teams walked 50 miles in under 24 hours in aid of Sport Relief
Famous alumni
The former head of music for URN presented BBC 6 Music's weekly chart show. Philippa Treverton-Jones graduated in 2007. Another former presenter on the station; Ian Chaloner is the current producer of the Greg James Show on BBC Radio 1.
